Psalms of Ascents - Program 6
Psalm 129
Psalm 129 reads:
“They have greatly oppressed me from my youth-let Israel say- they have greatly oppressed me from my youth, but they have not gained the victory over me. Ploughmen have ploughed my back and made their furrows long. But the Lord is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked. May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame. May they be like grass on the roof, which withers before it can grow; with it the reaper cannot fill his hands, nor the one who gathers fill his arms. May those who pass by not say, ‘The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we bless you in the Name of the Lord’”.
In this Psalm the writer complains at the treatment he and his people have received from their enemies, verse 1. It is a sad fact that Israel has often been the object of attacks from enemies simply because they are the Lord’s people. It is not that Israel has been faultless; in the Old Testament time and time again, through its own prophets, Israel is denounced for its sin and wickedness, its injustice and violence on the innocent and falling away from God’s law. Nevertheless there have been concerted attempts in the course of history to wipe them from the face of the earth. The Egyptians tried to do this as we read in the book of Exodus, and the Persians nearly a thousand years later tried to do it. In recent history the Nazis tried to do it in the Second World War. All these attempts failed. And the psalm writer testifies to the Lord’s deliverance in his own life. Look at verse 4 “the Lord has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.” And so he prays for the downfall of his enemies. Is he right to do this? This Psalm 129 is one of several Psalms which are known as “Imprecatory Psalms”, that is, Psalms which ask God to punish those who oppress the Lord’s people.
But Jesus said: “Love your enemies and pray for those whom persecute you” (Matthew chapter 5 verse 44). Jesus’ command is to us as individuals, that we should not strike back when our enemies hurt us, not to take the law into our own hands and seek revenge, but to pray for the good of our persecutors. The imprecatory psalms are not against this teaching of Jesus, they are not speaking of personal revenge, but for God to act against injustice and wickedness. It is not inconsistent to pray for our enemies and yet also to pray, “Lord, please sort these wicked folk out, they are doing such harm”. We can pray that people who hate what is good and continue in their wickedness and violence should be stopped in their tracks; but equally we should pray that they will turn from their evil to God; we can pray “Father, forgive them; but don’t let them go on doing such acts of violence and harm”. If, in fact, the first of these prayers is heard, that they receive forgiveness, then it will mean that they will also stop their wickedness.
Have you someone who is opposing you? Love them. Pour God’s love on them. Forgive them. They may not accept your forgiveness, but that is their responsibility, not yours. A truly loving, forgiving spirit is rare in the world today, but it is the hallmark of the true Christian. And, still being loving, we can pray that evil men and women will be stopped from doing their evil and brought trembling under the Word of God to repent and forsake their ways. Jesus said that someone who caused a child to sin would be severely judged by God and this is right and proper and how it should be.
But we must remember that this psalm writer, and those of the other imprecatory psalms, wrote before Calvary, before the day when Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, so he could only see the judgement of God coming against sin; he couldn’t see that evil people can be changed. The Cross of Jesus has changed many a wicked person’s life; in fact all of us stand condemned before God and need the forgiveness which comes from that death of Jesus on the Cross.
Our responsibility, as pilgrims journeying up to God’s house, is to love our enemies and pray that they will be turned from violence to the love of God. And if they will not, we have to leave the consequences with God. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay”, says the Lord (Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 35 and Romans chapter 12 verse 29).
Psalm 130
It is strange that in a Song of Ascents, a psalm sung by travellers going up to Jerusalem to worship God in the Temple, that a psalm writer should write of going down into the depths as he does in this next Psalm, Psalm 130.
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”
But going down into the depths of soul dejection is part of life for many people. The pilgrim, especially, is very aware of his frailty and sin and realises he is travelling to the presence of a God of absolute purity and holiness. It is good to be aware of this. Today we are told there is no such thing as sin, we can do more or less what we like. Out of the Ten Commandments given to Moses only three today are censured by the society in which we live. But sins does matter. An old Hebrew proverb says it is only fools who make a mock of sin. A wise person does not. This psalm writer knows that sin cuts us off from God the very fountain head of all our good and that if God kept a record of all our sins no one could stand upright in his presence. But doesn’t God keep a record of our sins? The answer is that for those who have come to God in the attitude of the psalmist there is no record of their sins kept. Out of the depths the writer cries out to God for mercy (see verse 2). That prayer is always answered by God. But the Christian knows why God does not keep a record of the sins of those who cry to him for mercy, something the writer of this Psalm did not know.
It is because Jesus died on the Cross where he bore the punishment of the sins of the whole world. Isaiah speaks of someone who “was pierced for our transgressions and was crushed for our iniquities”. This one bore the punishment “that brought us peace” (Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5). Christians see in Jesus the complete fulfilment of this passage in Isaiah. For those who come to Jesus, deeply sorry for their sins and longing to be forgiven and be made right with God, the account is cleared, their sins are wiped out, God no longer has a “record” of them see verse 3. That is why this Psalm speaks of “full redemption”, verse 7, redemption meaning being cleared of wrong and brought back to God’s favour. And will you note, please, that it is God himself who redeems people back to himself. It is not an angel who redeems the sinner, not a created being, but God himself. I don’t suppose the Psalmist could have really understood the full implications of this, but as Christians we can say, yes it really was God himself redeeming us by the Cross. As Paul puts it: “God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ”. Isaiah puts what happens like this: “I have swept away you offences like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist” (Isaiah chapter 44 verse 22).
Imagine an early summer’s day and the mist is lying low over the fields. Then the sun gets up and the mist just disappears. So, the sunshine of God’s love, seen in Jesus, sweeps away the sins of those who trust him. Have you trusted in him like that? He longs for you to have the account of your sin removed. But it isn’t automatic. We can’t have our sins removed by being born into a so-called Christian country or by being brought up in a Christian family, or by being baptised. Nothing we can do can remove our sins from us. Psalm 103 puts it like this: “as far as the east is from the west, so far He has removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103 verse 12). Now if you set out walking west one day and didn’t stop, you would never reach the east, you would always be travelling west. This is what God will do for you in removing your sins as far as the east is from the west, if, like the writer of this Psalm, you cry out to him to save you. Note, please, verse 4: “But with you there is forgiveness therefore you are feared”. When we have been forgiven by God we really do fear him in the right way, not with a cringing fear, but with awe. We stand in awe of his wonderful, forgiving love and the cost to him self of gaining our forgiveness, the pain, the darkness, the death of the Cross.
Forgiven, the writer has hope, verse 5: “I wait for the Lord, my souls waits, and in his word I put my hope”. His hope is in the character of God, in his Word. Our words show our characters, our personalities. God’s character is shown in what he says to us; his Word is Jesus. Consider Jesus and you are considering the very Word of God himself. In the New Testament Jesus is called the Word of God. Is your hope in him? Call on him to give you hope and it will come to you as the dawn comes to the watchmen on the city walls, verse 6. It is a beautiful thing to see the dawn come- first a crack in the sky of gold and silver, then more golden light until the full blaze of day floods all around us.
This Psalm 130 ends by the writer addressing his people; he wants all his people to enjoy putting their hope in God—free from all their sins. This hope is based on God’s unfailing love, verse 7. The love of people will disappoint us and fail us, God’s love never will-it even extends to himself freeing us from all our sins whatever they have been. You can, right now, become totally freed of all guilt and sin because God himself has redeemed you. Jesus is God in action for you. Trust him to restore you to God now.